Terms and Conditions

Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully. All services provided by Vocalsaints shall be governed by them, and Vocalsaints will ask you for your express written acceptance of these Terms and Conditions before providing any services.

Background and Purpose

At Vocalsaints Speech-Language Therapy, we prepare for each of our appointments thoroughly. Accordingly, there is a limit to the number of clients we see in a day because of the high level of service we guarantee.

If you book an appointment with us and don’t turn up – or if you contact us to cancel an appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice, three things happen:

We lose the time we have spent preparing for your appointment – time that we could have spent helping our other clients.

We may not have enough notice to schedule another client in to your slot. This reduces the total number of clients we are able to help that day.

We lose income. This makes it difficult for us to invest adequately in staff and resources. In some cases, it may mean that our staff do not get paid for the effort they have already made in preparing for your missed appointment.

Speech therapy is most effective in an atmosphere of reciprocal trust. We accept that things do happen: cars break down, kids get sick, important travel commitments crop up at short notice. However “no shows” and late cancellations – particularly if they occur more than once – erode trust and negatively affect the quality of our care. As we take pride in our work, wouldn’t want this to happen.

Agreement

Booking an assessment, therapy, coaching, consultation, training, intensive, workshop, seminar or other appointment with us (collectively, an “Appointment“) creates a legally binding contract – the “Agreement” – between you and us. The parties to this Agreement are:

The person who makes the booking, referred to in this agreement as “you”; and

By making the booking on behalf of yourself or a child under your care, you confirm that you are authorised to agree to these terms and conditions.

We provide our services to you subject to this agreement. As always with a binding contract, please read through it carefully before making a booking. We may amend the terms and conditions of this agreement, but the current version will always appear on our website (www.vocalsaints.co.nz.). If you continue to use our services after changes are made to this agreement, you will be deemed to have accepted the changed agreement between us.

Definitions

Except to the extent expressly provided otherwise, in these Terms and Conditions:

“Charges” means Vocalsaints’ standard service fee and any additional amounts calculated by multiplying Vocalsaints’ standard time-based charging rates by the time spent over and above normal service delivery periods.

“Client” means the person who stands to receive services from Vocalsaints, or the person’s caregiver if they are under 18 years of age.

“Vocalsaints” means the company Vocalsaints Limited (trading as Vocalsaints Speech Therapy) and its authorised representatives.

“Services” means the services provided by Vocalsaints to the Client.

“Terms and Conditions” means these terms and conditions, including any amendments made to them from time to time.

Services

Vocalsaints shall provide the Services to the Client in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

Vocalsaints shall provide the Services in accordance with the standards of skill and care reasonably expected from a leading service provider in the Speech-Language Therapy industry.

Intellectual Property

All materials provided to you by us (or by our staff or associates), and any intellectual property belonging to or associated with our company and/or services: including, but not limited to, any website, trade mark, trade name, logo, software, text and graphics are the sole property of us or our staff or associates. You agree not infringe any of our rights in any way.

You may make a copy of materials provided to you for your own personal use, but no other use of them is authorised whatsoever.

Charges

The Client shall pay the Charges to Vocalsaints in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

All amounts stated in or in relation to these Terms and Conditions are, unless the context requires otherwise, stated inclusive of GST.

Vocalsaints shall inform the Client in writing of the amount to be charged for any services before providing those services.

Vocalsaints shall issue invoices for the charges to the Client at the time of the Client’s appointment.

Payments

The Client must pay the Charges to Vocalsaints immediately after having received services.

The Client must pay the Charges by cash, EFTPOS, debit or credit card unless express written permission is granted by Vocalsaints before the provision of services.

If the Client does not pay any amount rightfully due to Vocalsaints under these Terms and Conditions, Vocalsaints may charge the Client interest on the overdue amount at the rate of 10% per annum (which interest will accrue daily until the date of actual payment and compounded at the end of each calendar month) until the full payment is made.

Cancellations

This includes cancellations, changes to bookings and failures to attend appointments. We will accept cancellations up to 24 hours before an appointment is scheduled. Including Monday – Saturday (excluding public holidays). You must notify us by email or by telephone, and we must have received your email or telephone call for your cancelation to be accepted. Our current contact details are enquiries@vocalsaints.co.nz and 0800 69 77 33.

If you fail to attend, cancel or seek to reschedule an appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice:

you will be liable to pay us the fee (total GST-inclusive cost of the Client’s appointment) ; and

if you have already paid us part or all of the fee, you will not receive a refund, except, at our sole discretion, and only in exceptional circumstances.

This fee needs to be paid before any further appointments may be booked.

If a cancellation fee is owed, an appointment time slot will not be reserved and may be taken by others.

If you fail to attend two or more appointments, we reserve the right to discharge you and/or any child under your care from our service without notice.

If we need to cancel an appointment for any reason, we may do so at any time before the appointment is scheduled to begin. We do not expect this to happen unless there are exceptional circumstances, and we’ll offer a full refund for any fees you’ve paid us for the appointment, or give you a choice of alternative dates for the appointment, but we are not liable to compensate you for any other expenses you might incurred in connection with the appointment. We will try to notify you of cancellations well in advance, but we cannot guarantee to do so if an appointment is cancelled at short notice (e.g. if the treating speech language therapist falls ill).

Limitations and Exclusions of Liability

Nothing in a contract under these Terms and Conditions will:

limit or exclude any liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence;

limit any liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law; or

exclude any liabilities that may not be excluded under applicable law.

We shall not be liable to the Client in respect of any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.

Attendance and Conduct

Kindly ensure that you arrive on time for each appointment. For the benefit of other clients, we will not admit you to your appointment any later than 15 minutes after the scheduled Appointment time has elapsed. You remain liable for the Appointment fee and we will not issue any refund.

In connection with providing our services to you and/or a child under your care and/or in accordance with our child protection policies, we may sometimes film, audio-record, or otherwise record our Appointments, in part or in full. Please note that your consent (on behalf of you and your child) to being filmed or recorded in connection with our services and/or for child protection purposes is an absolute condition of this Agreement. The recordings will form part of you or your child’s health records and will be held subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy.

We reserve the right to refuse admission to you and/or any child under your care or ask you and/or any child under your care to leave our premises if we think you and/or they are behaving in a disruptive way or in a way that violates our lease, or in a way that is likely to cause damage, nuisance, offence or injury. In these circumstances you will remain liable for the Appointment fee and we will not issue any refund.

By entering into this Agreement you agree to ensure that you and all children under your care attending an appointment under a booking made by you comply with all health and safety and other rules and regulations applicable to our premises. You also agree not to bring onto our premises any illegal or hazardous items or to allow such items to be brought onto our premises by a child under your care. You also agree to comply with any reasonable request by the staff at our premises (for example, and without limitation, requests relating to the health and safety of our staff).

No waiver: Any failure by us to enforce any provision of this Agreement at any time shall not be construed as a waiver of such provision and shall not affect our right to enforce such provision at any time.

General

If any provision of a contract under these Terms and Conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, all other provisions of that contract will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to have been deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect (unless that would contradict the clear intention of the parties, in which case the entirety of the relevant provision will be deemed to be deleted).

Neither party may without the prior written consent of the other party assign, transfer, charge, license or otherwise deal in or dispose of any contractual rights or obligations under these Terms and Conditions.

A contract under these Terms and Conditions is made for the benefit of the parties, and is not intended to benefit any third party or be enforceable by any third party. The rights of the parties to terminate, rescind, or agree any amendment, waiver, variation or settlement under or relating to a contract under these Terms and Conditions are not subject to the consent of any third party.

A contract under these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with New Zealand Law.

The courts of New Zealand shall have exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate any dispute arising under or in connection with a contract under these Terms and Conditions.